With WHO banning nerve tissue anti-rabies vaccines because of its ?severe side effects on the human nervous system?, plans are on to intensify the ongoing stray-dog sterilisation/anti-rabies vaccination programme aimed at ?turning Calcutta into Asia?s second rabies-free city after Singapore?.

The WHO directive on only cell culture vaccines being permitted has swelled the cost of anti-rabies treatment from zilch (for 14 shots at government hospitals) to Rs 1,500 for a course of five injections, triggering fears of the dreaded disease wreaking havoc, particularly among the city?s poorer sections.

?Cases of dog bite are much more frequent in the urban areas, where people and strays live in close proximity, and the ABC/AR (animal birth control/anti-rabies) programme is the only viable solution,? stresses Debasis Chakrabarti, managing trustee of People for Animals (PFA).

The NGO, involved with the rabies-control initiative in the city since 1996, plans to augment its ABC/AR drive in the wake of the WHO diktat.

?We have drawn up a 10-year roadmap to eradicate rabies from the city and our aim is to whittle down the stray population to two healthy dogs per running km,? says Chakrabarti. The long-term plan entails an expenditure of around Rs 10 lakh a year, and the NGO is sending its blueprint to the chambers for ?sensitising the corporate sector towards this grave health issue?.

By building an extensive network of local volunteers and through an aggressive vaccination and sterilisation drive, the action group hopes to ?reduce the incidence of rabies among the city?s human populace drastically? after the first six years, besides streamlining post-bite vaccination and management.

The eventual goal is to ?wipe out the disease from the face of the city?.

In a letter to chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, PFA has stressed that rabies prevention can be successful only if it is ?given top priority?, under the preventive healthcare agenda of the health department.

?Unless this is done, it will be absolutely impossible to meet the exorbitant costs of post-bite anti-rabies vaccinations, starting this year,? the letter underlines.

The correspondence to the chief minister further states that West Bengal could become ?a world model for developing countries? to control rabies in the Third World.

?Once the initial expenditure is arranged for, there will be enormous savings in the cost of post-bite vaccinations for humans,? PFA argues.